Self-Appraisal
A Tool For Stress-Free Living
Without proper
self-evaluation,
failure is
inevitable.
John Wooden
While walking up the
ramp of the Gorton Castle, the building that once housed in summers the British
Government of India, Central Secretariat Shimla, where I had joined as an Auditor
in the office of Accountant General Punjab, a few months earlier in late sixties,
one of senior colleagues, known as Swamiji, softly whispered, “while doing
office work you discuss sometimes unpleasant issues with the Superintendent”. He
advised, “make it sober and soft, if Superintendent felt hurt, he may spoil your
annual confidential report (ACRs).” Confidential Report! Greek to me at that
time. Slowly it transpired that the boss was required to maintain a register of
quality of work done for each employee and write his impressions at the end of
each month, as an aid for writing ACRs; when checked up to our surprise we
found entries made were very pleasant. ACRs writing was a tricky job and bosses
did not write for months together when due, building pressure on employees due
for advancement in their career.
Subsequently, this
was changed and every employee was required to submit a self-resume of the work
done during the relevant period; before appraisal was written, majority found
it an uphill task ran after those who had grip over expression and language.
What to write; what not to write was the question and that would decide one’s level of performance and grading too. That was
how got introduced to self-appraisal in life.
Wilbur Pierce said, “Rare is the person who can weigh
the faults of others without putting his thumb on the scales.” Equally true is
self–assessment without exaggerating one’s qualities and camouflaging one’s
faults, that started happening with resume too.
Self-appraisal,
self-audit, self-justification for actions, require sincerity and integrity:
not honesty but much above, with oneself. In fact, as Thales said, “The most difficult in life is to know yourself.” It
is a meditation, realization of self, with honesty, genuineness and
truthfulness; not everybody’s cake. There is no place for self-deceit in the
theorem of sincerity with self; it’s a wisdom pure and selfless; it is a
feeling, a intellect, a introspection, sometimes it is OK to take a step back
and admit you are being ridiculous; but seldom we do. Majority of us think others’
wealth and self-wisdom always greater; majority tries to prove the others wrong
and himself wiser than the others, the root cause of many disruptions, disputes,
and distractions in life.
How to assess
oneself; no procedure is prescribed; everybody would suggest different. It is
an issue which is ‘me to me’ very delicate requiring lot of courage and
strength. However, one way is a meeting with self. Every day at close; arrange
a meeting with self, a meeting with conscious crystal clear, setting aside ego
the “I and me” and analyzing whether everything during the day was done
according to the voice of conscious particularly; the apparently wrong things
like talking to someone in high pitched tone, not obeying elders, not listening
to juniors, particularly your wife mostly treated as junior in every respect in
our society, any dishonest act with a stranger or your helps like guards,
maids, pressman, garbage man - many treat them sub-human being and actually it
makes the so called boss a person, an inferior man, any other thing which you
feel should not have been done that way. If you feel it should have been done
other way round reconcile yourself and correct in the days to come, be
conscious of it, some situations are easy to correct, for such others only a
realization is needed. It will help one to avoid such situations in future and
add a chapter of satisfaction in one’s life and make one wiser, brighter and
acceptable.
Modern management
has many ways to make self-assessment; one being SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, Threats) analysis. Fundamental is the knowledge and admission of
ones weaknesses- skill, experience, knowledge, character traits, habits,
desiring more than deserving etcetera, never make them an excuse for non-performance
always try to improve or live up the expectations; when wrong happens be quick
to admit that would give strength and wisdom too but be careful who you share
your weaknesses, some people can’t wait for the opportunity to use it against
you.
“In
most cases, strengths and weaknesses are two sides of the same coin. A strength
in one situation is a weakness in another, yet often the person can’t switch
gears. It’s a very subtle thing to talk about strengths and weaknesses because
almost always they’re the same thing.”
Steve Jobs
“Remember weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.
Albert Einstein
Threat is the next
to be taken care of; most of the threats are from outside and are taken care of
well; but the threats from inside, your conscious, attitude, character, habits,
even the way you talk and address people, are very serious and require strength
and courage to overcome e.g. excessive dislike for a person, not forgetting the
past, furious anger, grievous greed for something, short temperament etc. Take
care of them in a sensible manner and it is the “YOU” alone who can correct it and
make your person respectable; prudent.
Strengths and
opportunities apparently simple issues but they require more sensible handling.
A person must be aware of his strengths like humility, meticulousness,
patience, listening, calmness, clarity, expression and control of language,
good physique, ingenuity, being imaginative, skills, knowledge, etc. Mind it,
not easy to do, has to be done. Never over exhibit them; use when required;
people are too quick to allege ego that may hurt you. Never be over-confident:
this turns a strength into weakness.
Great opportune
moments come rarely in life, but once they come and are ceased appropriately they
change the course of one’s life; otherwise every moment is opportune moment,
catch a moment and make it: that is, what required in life.
“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.”
Francis Bacon.
“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
Albert Einstein
Action has always
been superior to speech; it makes you a man of promise, performance, results
and delivery; earns respect, regards and remuneration too sometimes. Action is
the essence of life. It will make your self-analysis more meaningful with
lesser corrections and more satisfaction. It is the wisdom of ages, sages and
scriptures too all the times. Do not speak for action; let the action speak for
itself; doer is not important if you make it so, loss would be yours, makes you
haughty but action is important. Act as devotion to divine, as your love, like,
and hobby; reward is inbuilt and you need not work again. Play the game well
goals are in built. Prepare thoroughly marks are just judgments of an
evaluator.
“The superior man is
modest in his speech,
but exceeds in his
actions.” Confucius.
Confucius further said, “He who conquers himself is the
mightiest warrior.” How
to conquer oneself that is question. There are no yardstick nor standard
operating procedures as for Corona, to judge who is the winner. Judge yourself
against the well-established moral norms: lust, greed, attachment, ego and
anger; this perhaps too much to expect, exceptionally difficult to comply and
perhaps next to impossible to achieve for a common ordinary man the category to
which majority of us belong. However, if we bring down the scale of scriptures,
this concept can be understood more easily. Grade yourself sincerely on the
scale of 1 to 10, on any subject connected with above five moral values for
example-how touchy you are. My assessment is nobody would agree that he is
touchy. But that is not the way. Simple way to judge is how quickly one gives
negative reply to most ordinary and positive questions, seldom agrees to
advice, suggestion, always has alternative than the one under discussion, never
agrees to apparent wrong, question is replied by a question, always on the side
of the problem never with the solution, has always something to make his point,
seldom a man of praise for others and their actions, all these indicate the existence
of ego. See for yourself how much nearer you are to the basic concept that
would help in self-assessment, evaluation and appraisal. Tough job but
essential to perform to know yourself and remain stress free.
Another yard stick
for self-appraisal, is self-imposed discipline that is also known as
self-denial-when you can do something but you restrain yourself from doing.
Those who impose discipline on themselves they are always gainers in one
respect or the other; sometimes may not be in the intended direction,
ultimately they are. It is jewel of human character; it is for the individual
to decorate himself or not. It requires a determination, firm will to do, inner
strength. Those who try to impose discipline on others are loser most of the
times because the direction may meet with a retort vocal or otherwise. SID is a
sacrifice and helpful in self-evaluation.
With self-discipline most anything is possible.
Theodore Roosevelt
No one can win all the time. But you have got to learn
from all you do both successes and failures. Always do a self-assessment.
Michael Sachs
One can also adopt a
more simple approach of pros and cons or say cause and effect of every
situation, life presents on a platter. Think it, in a broader sense; not always
from the point of view of self, earning, money or favours. In fact, these are
very small things in life; not always helpful; for example when you have joined
King’s service-now Government service; think for the welfare of the people,
development or defence of the country; country’s relationship with other
countries; how to make the life of people easy and also the honest ways of
earning. But if you think of yourself it is unethical and dangerous it may cost
your job. When working for an organization work for its aims and objective; it
is where your character, sense of self analysis and integrity would be tested.
If still not able to
proceed, remember age old sayings, “Think before you leap.” “Think before you
speak.” “Think before you act.” They are time tested and well established. If
you do not understand then you have only to repent your wisdom as some actions
can’t be reversed; for example when you were required to attend somebody’s cremation
but you did not attend, obviously it can’t be reversed.
It is up to you to choose between happiness and stress. If
there are 100 reasons for being unhappy, there are 1000 reasons for being happy
- we need to always try to find out those reasons and remain happy.
Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly. It is your
masterpiece after all.
Nathan Morris
You are the master of the show-the Life, direct it well
and be happy.
